Mississippi Sheriff Charged In Basketball Coach’s Murder

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Family and friends of a youth basketball coach called for swift justice Tuesday against two Mississippi sheriff’s deputies accused of assaulting their son after a recreational league game and causing injuries that led to his death. Hinds County Sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Adams was charged with murder in Monday’s death of 25-year-old Justin Griffin.

Adams, 37, was refereeing a 7th-grade AAU state tournament game Griffin was coaching on Sunday. The two argued over play calls on the court and later Griffin was attacked in the parking lot outside, police said.

Griffin died from blunt-force trauma to the head from injuries in the fight, said Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart.

“We believe this was an unprovoked act of aggression as a result of our investigation,” Assistant Jackson Police Chief Lee Vance told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “That’s why we charged him with the murder.”

Adams is jailed after being denied bond Tuesday. A second unnamed deputy in uniform, working as a security guard at the gym — is being investigated. Vance said police are consulting prosecutors about charges.

Both deputies are suspended without pay pending an internal investigation by the sheriff’s office, said Othor Cain, spokesman for Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis. Lewis will ultimately decide whether either deputy is fired, though Cain said he couldn’t say when the investigations would be finished. James Griffin, Justin Griffin’s father, disputed accounts by authorities that his son started the fight.

Dozens of people gathered at Griffin’s home Tuesday evening, saying they wanted to uphold Griffin’s reputation.

“He was assaulted and killed by the guys who were supposed to be protecting him,” the father told reporters Tuesday. “My boy was not a thug. We raised him and we raised him right.”

Hours after Griffin died, police arrested Adams, who did not make his initial appearance in open court. Court personnel said he was privately arraigned by Jackson municipal Judge William Walker in a hallway. It was unclear Tuesday whether Adams had an attorney. Vance said that from reviewing “two or three” partial videos of the scene, it’s clear the second deputy participated in the assault.